The novel life cycle assessment (LCA)-based carbon handprint indicator represents a potential carbon footprint reduction that producers/products create for customers who use the(ir) product instead of a baseline product. The research question is how to consider a situation in which multiple customers use a product for different purposes to provide a carbon handprint quantification and the associated communication. The study further provides new insight into the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential within the mobile telecommunications and energy sectors. The carbon handprint of a novel Finnish liquid-cooled base station technology is quantified. The liquid-cooled base station provides a telecommunications service and waste heat that is recoverable through the cooling liquid for heating purposes. The baseline solutions are an air-cooled base station, and district and electrical heating. The liquid-cooled base station creates a carbon handprint, both through energy savings in telecommunications and additional waste heat reuse, replacing other energy production methods. A large-scale climate change mitigation potential through a liquid-cooled base station expansion could be significant. Different supply chain operators’ contributions to the total carbon handprint could be terminologically distinguished in communications to emphasize their roles in a shared handprint. The handprint should be transparently communicated for each customer and function.
Nutrients such as nitrogen are required to secure food production. However, nitrogen cycles have been disturbed by excess nitrogen intake and low nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), which have several environmental impacts.In order to address nitrogen-related issues, the magnitude of the problem and hotspots in the value chain must first be identified. Various methods to quantify nitrogen use, NUE, and nitrogen-related environmental impact potential have been proposed to tackle this challenge. The approaches, methods, and indicators that can be used in assessing particular food systems are presented in this chapter.The methods serve different purposes and present certain differences in terms of scoping and system boundaries. The aim of this chapter is to present currently relevant methods to analyze the nitrogen footprint of a food chain in order to help those tasked with carrying out assessments to choose the method which best meets their needs.
Cities play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation; however, the methodology to quantify actual emission reduction potential of climate interventions implemented by cities and regions has been lacking. The aim of this study is to create a framework to assess positive climate impacts of cities and regions by modifying the life-cycle assessment (LCA)-based carbon handprint framework. Additionally, a step-by-step guidance to perform calculations is presented. A case study of the Finnish city of Espoo is used to further develop and test the regional handprint approach both qualitatively and quantitatively. According to our research, a city′s carbon handprint can be determined through the three main mechanism categories of ownership, operating environment and projects. In the case of Espoo, the carbon handprint of building public electric vehicle charging stations on city-owned land from the mechanism category of ownership showed to be up to 110 tCO2eq/a for 18 charging stations. However, the overall handprint of a city consists of several actions, to be calculated separately. The regional carbon handprint approach provides a useful instrument to reliable quantify and communicate the innovative climate actions implemented by a city and it can be used in cities′ climate work as well as in marketing and branding purposes. Handprint turns the focus on possibilities for increasing a city vitality. As a provider of climate solutions, a city can attract new taxpayers and by focusing efforts to a certain sector, a city can help companies to reach synergies in fields essential from the climate point of view.
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